Cherie Blair is the wife of the former British prime minister Tony Blair. She is a leading lawyer and a committed campaigner for women’s rights. Five years ago she set up the Cherie Blair Foundation to support women entrepreneurs and, since then, the organisation has helped more than 100,000 women in more than 70 countries. Mrs Blair was in Dubai last week to give a keynote speech at the Women in Leadership Economic Forum on the importance of supporting women’s economic empowerment in emerging economies.
What were main ideas you touched on in your speech?
Being a woman in business can be a challenging road to take. Women are not yet on an even playing field anywhere in the world. Informal prejudices continue and we still haven’t figured out one of the most basic challenges women face: how to find a balance between work and home life. My foundation supports women, giving them confidence and capability as well as information on how to access capital to help them grow successful businesses. Improving the status of women is crucial to tackling many of the challenges we face today, and bringing in their own income for their family is a powerful way for a woman to help achieve that. There’s an economic reason too why we need more women entrepreneurs. We will inevitably fail to achieve employment targets unless many more women have economic opportunities.
Why is empowering women specifically so important?
Studies have shown that when you empower a woman, you empower an economy, a nation. This is because women — unlike men — invest 90 per cent of their income back into their families and communities, which in turn has a knock-on effect on both their immediate society and the wider economy.
What challenges do women entrepreneurs in developing countries currently face?
There are certain challenges that women often have in common, regardless of their cultural, social and economic situation, such as a lack of access to financial services. Many women business owners worldwide are unable to take out a loan, do not have access to a bank, or have a limited understanding of how finances work. One of my foundation’s aims is to increase women’s access to financial services and key to our success is working in partnership with NGOs and the private sector.
Can you describe the expansion of the foundation into the UAE?
We have been working with JP Morgan since 2011 to support women entrepreneurs in Lebanon. We recently launched an 18-month pilot project in the UAE with JP Morgan and PlaNet Finance to provide 100 women entrepreneurs with in-depth business skills training. There has been a gradual increase in the number of women running businesses in the UAE in recent years, but there are still key challenges that women face due to the lack of support systems for entrepreneurs. There is also a wide gap in the range of financing options, coaching opportunities and network structures, as well as business incubators for women. Training will enable the women independently to grow their micro businesses to the next stage up — small businesses — by equipping them with a range of necessary skills. The women who graduate from this project will, we believe, pass on their experiences and learning to future intakes of women entrepreneurs through mentoring support. We have a clear selection process for which women we choose join our programme. We look for women who are already running a business and have at least a 50 per cent share in it. We will carry out a market survey to identify new growth sectors and select women entrepreneurs whose businesses have the greatest chance of success.
How does this support extend across the Middle East?
With JP Morgan’s support and working with Tomorrow’s Youth Organisation and the Rene Moawad Foundation in Lebanon, we supported 42 women entrepreneurs in the north of the country to develop and scale their micro-businesses. The project achieved significant results, and a further 49 jobs for women have been created through the growth in these businesses. My foundation and its partners have joined together to expand this project to support 200 more women across Lebanon, including both Lebanese and Palestinian entrepreneurs, and to create additional jobs for over 100 women and men in the local economies.
business@thenational.ae
Follow The National's Business section on Twitter
